Be Ambitious

After Bear World and Green Canyon we started into the Yellowstone Park portion of the family reunion. Mom and Dad got a great cabin that all of us could fit in together. Every family had their own room to sleep in and there was plenty of space. It was really fun. I really liked the close quarters for the few days we were together. The kitchen was huge and it was a highlight for me to be working in there with all my siblings and their families.

Anyway, the next part of the trip was to Jenny Lake. Jenny Lake holds a lot of sentimentality for my family just like all of Yellowstone. I think that my brother David proposed to his wife, Abby, there.

So we all piled into the cars and drove to the lake in our caravan. One thing that has to be mentioned here is that my family is kind of famous for long road trips. Anyone who marries into the Kunz family learns this very quickly.  Dad loves to drive. For some reason all of his children do not! I think most of us look back on the big family road trips with mixed feelings. The memories are great (and oftentimes hilarious) but it was never a favorite in the moment. The drive to Jenny Lake from our cabin was a pretty big one relative to the rest of the driving that we were doing that week. I think we all approached to upcoming drive with some trepidation and, if I recall correctly, some grumbling. Poor Dad is the one who catches all the flak for our disdain of driving. Mom is always right there next to him though.

So here we are right after arriving.  We made a quick bathroom stop before we headed out for the "hike" to the lake.  I say "hike" because it's a paved trail that takes less than ten minutes to walk.  I love this picture because it kinda captures us in all our glory.  No one is ever serious, Jason is always smiling, Liz is trying to be the only adult, Nate's attached to his cousin Sydney, I'm trying to ignore the camera, and Dad is like a little kid when he's out doing things in his favorite places.  

Funny story here really quick while I'm thinking about it.  Mom and Dad surprised us all with Disney shirts once we got together for the reunion.  Mom said she wanted us all to wear them at the same time.  If you know me, this is not something that excites me.  I hate the attention it draws.  We were a pretty big group so we got a lot of attention.  Later on this same day we went to Old Faithful.  I did not get pictures but more on that later.  We were all in the lodge eating huckleberry ice cream waiting for the next eruption when a couple of Asian women approached us.  In very broken English they asked if we were all together and pointed at all the matching shirts while they laughed.  We smiled and nodded.  Then they whipped out their cameras and started taking pictures of us!  "Large American family!" they kept saying as we looked on is disbelief.  Liz leaned over to me after they left and said, "The Kunz family reunion is going to end up in some Asian scrapbook now with the label of 'Crazy Large American Family' below it!" We laughed about that for the rest of the week.  Thanks, Mom, for making us a great American spectacle!  :)
This is John, Hyrum and Nate.  They are the only grandsons.  Totally outnumbered by the girls!
Once we got to the lake all you could hear was each of us yelling at our children, "Please stay out of the water!" "Don't splash your sister!" "Didn't I just say to stop that?!"  It had to be funny to people "hiking" by.  Isn't the scenery beautiful, though?
Nate and Scarlett.  I couldn't get a good picture of them together if it killed me.  So here's the explanation of pictures/camera that I mentioned would be coming later.  As a mother, I know I'm pretty good at some things.  Other things I know I'm terrible at.  Remembering to take my camera and then remembering to take pictures with that camera is one things that I am terrible at.  I have friends who have wonderful pictures of family times together with their children that are beautiful and I know they have them because they take their cameras everywhere.  I have missed many opportunities because I don't take my camera anywhere.  You'll understand this more fully as I mention more things we did on the reunion that I do not have pictures of because I did not bring the camera.  When I do take my camera, I try to force cute pictures and we all know you cannot do that if you have children.  So, here are some of my forced pictures with my kids.  Nate plays along better than Scarlett. 
And here you can see that it's just not working and I'm faking my smile.  When will I learn?
Our favorite time of day.  Lunch!  Well, anytime there's food, really.  So here we all are picnicing. I don't know why Mom and Dad ever did this with so many children of their own.  I have two.  Could I get them to sit down? No.  Could I get them to wait patiently while I made their sandwiches? No.  Could I keep them from eating food directly off the picnic table that we all know is not clean? No.  Could I get them to not get dirty? No.  I cannot imagine the stress magnified.  I am a no fun mom, that's for sure!  I could be more fun if I could just learn to loosen up.  They are kids, right?  I'm supposed to let them break in their immune systems and get dirty!  All that aside, it was fun to sit and eat with my siblings and parents and have somewhat adult conversations between the, "Hey, did you see where my kid went?" questions.  Of course, Mom and Dad where drinking it all in and loving the fact that they weren't the ones yelling at children to behave and eat.  I can't wait to be a grandparent! 
So there's Jenny Lake.  Next up, Yellowstone Park!

Recently, my parents decided that every few years they'd like to gather their children together and do a mini family reunion. I really like the idea because most of us have really small children and they grow and change so fast that I'd like to see them as much as possible. This past summer it was decided that we would go to West Yellowstone for the reunion. I grew up going to Yellowstone all the time. My parents grew up around that area. It holds a lot of nostalgia for our family. So here is the first day of the reunion. Buckle up, it's gonna be a long one.

We decided our first stop would be Bear World. Bear World is like a mini reserve that holds tons of bears, bison, elk, deer and various other wild animals. It's right outside of Rexburg, ID and it's really fun with the kids. The first part of Bear World is the reserve area that you drive through. After that there is a petting zoo and a small carnival ride area for the little kids.
Have you ever seen a white elk?  It was very cool.  It's funny how things are more remarkable when you see it first hand rather than through a camera lense.  Or maybe that's just a commentary on our photography skills.  Anyway, that's Nate's head with nose glued to the window as we drove through.
We had to caravan everywhere we went.  I'm in the big truck with my family and Dad driving.  Behind that is my brother John driving in Mom's car with her and his two boys, John and Hyrum.  Behind them was Jason and Liz with their three girls, Sydney, Maggie, and Charlie.  My Sister Krista was in there as well.  My youngest brother David and is wife, Abby, and their daughter Riley, didn't come with us to Bear World because he was taking one of his last finals at BYU-I.
Nate's been to Bear World before and remembered it and loved it.  We counted how many bears we saw.  Scarlett, as you can see, was more interested in her drink. 
Bison are everywhere!
I loved this bear.  Completely on his back sunning himself.  I don't know if I'd be doing anything different if I were him.
It's hard to get a good picture of the bears when you're driving through them.  Robert got this picture and I think it's the best one we got.
Here's the crew.  From left to right:  Harold (my dad), Me holding Scarlett, Teresa (my mom) holding Hyrum, Liz (oldest sister) holding Charlie, Jason (Liz's husband) holding Maggie, Nate, Sydney, John (the big tall John who is my younger brother) with John, his oldest son, standing in front of him, and Krista (sister just older than me).
Inside the petting zoo area they have an area fenced off where all the bear cubs play.
This was Scarlett's favorite.  She loved watching them play.
Nate: "Mom!  Am I as big as a bear?"
Scarlett would run back to the cub area and do this.  We knew where she was headed whenever she tried to take off. 
That is, until I showed her the petting zoo.  This is her trying to figure out if she can touch the goat and if the goat would let her.  She didn't quite touch it...
She decided to take a closer look first.
Nate loved the petting zoo. 
I finally got Scarlett to pet a fawn.  She loved it.  She pet them so delicately.  That's Hyrum with us.
This is me with Scarlett, Nate and Sydney.  The peacock in the picture caught Scarlett's eye.  She loves birds.  She's always pointing them out to me.  This one was the bird of birds because it was so big and pretty.  She figured she should pet it, too.  So we chased it for awhile.  She'd get so close to the beautiful tail feathers and the bird would move just in the nick of time.  So Scarlett decided to move on to greener pastures...
Apparently geese are just as interesting as peacocks.  At this point I think Scarlett was thinking any bird would do just as long as she could pet it.  Look at her reaching!
And reaching....
And the geese scattering!  Poor girl never got to pet a bird but she gave me and my dad lots to laugh about.
You must do a family picture like this when you come to Bear World.  Nate really got into the spirit.
On to the carnival rides!  The kids love this one.  It's Nate, Sydney, Maggie, John and Charlie.
Robert hates drop rides like this but got into it for his daughter.  Big John thought it would be fun to get in on the action with his boys, too.  You should have seen him trying to get his thick 6'4" frame into that seat!
Can you see Scarlett laughing?  Robert is always a good time and he's a sucker for his daughter.
I'm a sucker for her, too.  This is she and I on the mini coaster.
Nate and Sydney were behind us and Krista and Hyrum were behind them.
Look at that face!  He's so happy!  He's such a sweet kid.  I love him to death!
Last time we were at Bear World Robert rode this ride with Nate.  This time is was only appropriate for Scarlett to ride with him.  Besides, Nate was more interested in playing with his cousins that he never sees than playing with his family who is very boring...
Nate and Maggie.  Nate loves his cousins, especially Liz and Jason's girls. 
There's the smile I love from Scarlett.  There were no happier kids on the planet that day than my kids.
We ended the day at Green Canyon.  It's a natural hot springs and pool that I grew up swimming at with my Grandma Johnson and siblings.  Nothing had changed.  My kids loved it.  It had been a long day, though, so the hot springs wiped them out pretty fast.  After we swam we did a campfire with hotdogs and marshmallows and then packed up and drove the kids back to the hotel for bed.  I swear I looked back at their faces as we drove home and they were smiling in their sleep.  Nothing like blissful exhaustion.

What's better than playing in the sprinklers? Playing in the sprinklers with cousins!!! When we went home to Idaho for my family's reunion we had a couple of days to play at my parents house before we headed to the reunion. Our kids' suitcase was lost after we landed, but I had enough clothes to let them run through the sprinklers. Nate ran in his shorts and Scarlett ran in some hand me down swim trunks I'd brought to give to my nephews.
I love watching kids run in the sprinklers.  They start out so timid.  You can see that Charlie, far left, has already gotten past that, but my kids are taking their time getting wet.  Charlie is my sister, Liz's youngest.  She's just three months older than Scarlett. 

I think you can even see me in the background gardening.  How did my mom convince me to do that?  I hate gardening!
Scarlett, Charlie and Nate.  Charlie was having a hard time convincing my kids to play.  I think she's giving up on them here.
Scarlett getting a little drizzle.  Love those smiles.
Nate finally going for it.  He's so cute!
"Yay!  You guys are finally playing with me!  Let's go!  Run!"

It's kind of sad, but over all the years and moves we've been through, Robert and I have gotten used to saying goodbye to really good friends. It's never easy. It's amazing how quickly you become close to people. I am always happy to see friends move on in their lives. Thus far, our friends have most always moved to continue their education or begin their careers. It's such an exciting thing! In the spirit of excitement we had a small get together with our friends, the Sjobloms, before they moved away from Houston. The Sjobloms were our family so far from home. They were always there for us through everything we experienced here. Their daughters were our children's best friends. They were our closest friends. They were sounding boards for our troubles and shoulders for us when we cried. I will always remember the way Matt took care of Scarlett while she was in the NICU. In short, they are great people who we have already missed.

Matt's birthday was near the time of their move away, so I asked him what I could make him for his birthday treat. He chose chocolate cupcakes filled with ganache and topped with a peanut butter buttercream with chocolate drizzle and peanut chunks. It was really yummy. I need them to come back so I have an excuse the make them again!
The kids were so good together that last night.  Maybe they felt the difference.  Anyway, Nate and Audrey spent so much time together that I think they could be siblings.  Well, except for the fact that they talked about getting married when they got older...

Karin and Scarlett are nine months apart in age.  I remember delivering Scarlett and Brekke and Audrey came to visit.  We had no idea that she was pregnant at the time, but Brekke was so sweet with Scarlett. 
Karin was such and easy, happy girl when she was around us.  Scarlett loved her.
Me and Brekke.  I don't know what else to say other than I admire her and wish I had some of her qualities.  I will always remember her as an influential friend.
They boys.  Could two men be faster friends?  I just don't think so.  Matt was always a good time and good conversation.  Well, maybe except for after 24 hour call.  Then he was just sleepy.  Anyway, these two guys spent a lot of time together.  They got teased because they spent so much time together. 

We wish the Sjobloms all the best!  Like I said, we miss them already.  We hope we'll be lucky enough to run into them again in the future!

I am so bad at doing things like this so I'm pretty proud of myself for doing this comparative post. I expected to see more of a difference in him, but all I really see is the difference in his hair. Maybe that's the mom in me desperately trying to reconcile the fact that Nate will be seven years old next week.
Nate loved kindergarten and only missed a couple of days because he was sick. He was so upset when he missed those days. He loved his friends and his teacher.
I remember watching him walk to school with Robert on his first day of school for kindergarten. I was so conflicted. I didn't cry, but I was worried that I couldn't see and control everything he was exposed to. That was definitely valid. He came home with all sorts of stories and questions for me. It was nice to have an opportunity to teach him. Scarlett and I missed having him around during the day. Nate is a really fun kid to be around. I was always so excited to pick him up and have him tell me about his day while we had a snack. That's what I pictured in my head, anyway. Reality was that Nate wasn't very talkative when I'd pick him up from school and he'd never remember his day so all my questions were answered with, "I don't remember." I am hopeful for another great school year for Nate this year. He's already completed his first week of first grade. True to form, he doesn't really remember anything about what he did during the day but he's making friends and enjoying his new teacher. I will post first day of school for first grade soon!